Section 2 Britain Leads the Way

• Britain had plenty of natural resources such as natural ports and rivers
• Britain began to build canals to increase accessibility for trade and increased communications with other countries
• Britain had an abundant amount of coal, which was used to power steam engines
• Having supplies like iron helped build machines
• Britain had a stable government that supported the growth of the economy
• Britain had a strong navy

• The population explosion caused a demand for goods
• Money was needed to start producing more products
• ​British economy prospered in the 1600-1700s- accumulated capital

• Because of the demand of Indian cloth, British merchants tried to organize a textile industry in people's homes --> the putting-out system
• Production was slow under the putting-out system, many people invented machines to help do the work faster
• John Kay- Flying Shuttle
• James Hargreaves- Spinning Jenny
• Richard Arkwright- Water Frame
• Eli Whitney- Cotton Gin
• The new machines were too big to be in homes, so factories had to be created to house them
• Spinners and weavers worked in the factories and produced a larger quantity of goods

• Capitalists invested in turnpikes to make traveling for entrepreneurs faster
• Turnpikes soon linked every part of Britain
• During the late 1700s and early 1800s, factories needed and inexpensive way to get coal and raw materials.
• 1763, the Bridgewater Canal opened and cut the price of coal in Manchester in half- started the canal boom
• Entrepreneurs formed companies to construct canals for profit
• Lost Importance in 1830 when the railroad trend began
• In the early 1800s, George Stephenson developed the steam locomotive
• Railroad tracks could go places rivers couldn't
• The first major rail line opened in 1830 and went from Liverpool to Manchester
• By 1870, rail line crisscrossed Britain, Europe and North America
• Once Inventers developed machines, prices fell and goods were more affordable for people and so there were more consumers
• The new cycle created economic and social change

• Capital- money used to invest in enterprises
• Enterprises- a business organization in an area such as shipping, mining, railroads or factories
• Entrepreneurs- those who managed and assumed the financial risks of starting new business
• Putting-out System- (the cottage industry) raw cotton was distributed to peasant families who spun it into thread and then wove the thread into cloth in their own homes, skilled artisans dyed into cloth in the towns.
• Flying Shuttle- invented by John Kay, enabled weavers to work so fast that they soon outpaced spinners
• Spinning Jenny- invented by James Hargreaves, spun many threads at the same time
• Water Frame- invented by Richard Arkwright, a spinning machine that could be powered by water
• Cotton Gin- invented by Eli Whitney, separated the seeds from the raw cotton at a faster rate
• Turnpikes- private roads built by entrepreneurs who charged travelers a toll to use them
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• http://www.unc.edu/~nielsen/soci111/m13/hs9004.jpg
• http://www.salecruisingclub.co.uk/images/bridgewater_canal_map.gif
• http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/RPrice/Coursedirectory/219/Maps/Britain--Regions%20Map.gif